Enchanted To Meet You
by Grumpr
Summary: In 2012, Klaus and Elijah share a few moments with Klaus' daughter before she's sent away. In the 10th century, Elijah meets his brother for the first time. Two still unnamed children on their first day, a thousand years apart.
1. Hope

**Enchanted to meet you**

 **Synopsis:** Hope and Klaus. Two still unnamed children on their first day, a thousand years apart.

 **Part one:** Klaus and Elijah share a few moments with Klaus' daughter before she's sent away. Set during 1x22.

* * *

 **New Orleans, 2012**

* * *

His daughter is perfect.

Granted, Klaus doesn't actually know that many babies, but that hardly matters. He's pretty sure as a father he's allowed to be biased, and his daughter is clearly perfect.

She's small, and delicate, and wholly _alive_. Her heartbeat is a soft, rapid thumping to his ears. He carefully traces the curve of her ear, his touch little more than a brush of air as he strokes her pink cheek. His daughter doesn't stir, mercifully quiet as she sleeps in his arms.

He looks up as familiar footsteps climb the stairs and Elijah walks in, slipping his phone inside his jacket.

"Well?" Klaus asks, trying to keep his voice low.

Elijah nods, a glimmer of a smile on his face and Klaus lets out a breath he almost didn't know he was holding.

"Rebekah has agreed to meet you outside of town," Elijah elaborates. "She can be there around two."

"Good," Klaus says, more than a little relieved.

His brother seats himself on the sofa, eyes flickering back to the baby in Klaus' arms. "Where is Hayley?"

"In the shower," Klaus replies. "I convinced her to at least clean up a little."

It had only been after serious cajoling that Hayley had finally agreed to leave her daughter in Klaus' arms so that she could take a shower. She didn't want to be parted from her child when they had so little time left together, a sentiment Klaus can understand completely.

He's not sure he can bear to be parted from his daughter either.

The baby squirms a little in his arms, letting out a soft whine before settling down again. He is amazed once again at how red her skin is. It should fade in a few days or weeks, he remembers that much from when Henrik was born.

His youngest brother is all Klaus has to go on when it comes to this. With both Kol and Rebekah he had been too young to remember very much of their early days.

Sometimes, if he casts his mind back far enough, he thinks he remembers the heat of the summer day when he first held his sister, but it's only a vague memory. Only sense impressions—the cool air inside the room and the surprising weight of the warm body in his arms.

Mother had told him once that Rebekah had gone quiet the moment someone had put her in his arms.

He sees Elijah watching, a slight smile playing at his lips. Suddenly another thought occurs to him.

"Would you like to hold her?" he asks.

His brother looks surprised for a brief moment, before he hides it.

"I wouldn't wish to deprive you of your remaining time with your daughter," Elijah says, which isn't exactly a denial.

"Nonsense," Klaus replies, keeping his voice quiet lest he wakes the child. "She's your niece. It wouldn't do to go without holding her even once."

He gets up, staving off further protests. Elijah sits up straighter, and holds out his arms as Klaus carefully lowers her into his hands.

"Make sure you support her head," Klaus warns, somehow irrationally concerned.

"I remember," Elijah just says when Klaus trails off.

He walks back to his chair, even as every instinct in him is screaming for him to stay close by, to grab back his child. She's strong, he knows that, yet she seems so vulnerable, so small in his brother's arms. He settles into his armchair, watching his brother shift the baby—his _daughter_ —in his arms as if he has done so a thousand times before.

Which he had of course, if not with Hope then with their younger siblings. Elijah handles his daughter with a confidence Klaus wishes he possessed himself. His brother would have made a good father.

 _Better than you_ , some treacherous part of his mind whispers. Klaus pushes the thought away, focusing instead on the present moment.

Elijah seems almost as mesmerised by the child as Klaus is, his eyes taking in every feature.

"She has your nose," Elijah finally says.

"Does she?"

"You don't think so?" Elijah asks, tracing a thumb over the baby's soft cheek. She stirs a little in her sleep, opening her mouth as if to yawn, before settling down again.

She's a surprisingly calm baby. Klaus can't claim much first-hand experience with babies, but he remembers those first few weeks after Henrik was born, how the cries would wake them all up.

Then again he supposes his daughter might be tired from a rather eventful first day on this earth.

"She reminds me a little of Rebekah," Klaus admits.

"You and Rebekah did look rather alike when you were first born," Elijah tells him.

Klaus hums. It's always strange when he's faced with a reminder that his brother's memory stretches back further than his own, to days before Klaus was even born.

"She looks more like Hayley, I'd say," he tells his brother.

Elijah hums. "I suppose it would—oh."

He pauses, and Klaus sees his daughter's eyes are now open and she's staring up at Elijah.

"Hello," his brother says softly, meeting her eyes. "It's very good to meet you, little one."

Klaus watches with rapt attention as his daughter blinks up at her uncle. Elijah smiles. His brother is a natural at this. The two of them make a fine picture, and part of Klaus feels like smiling himself, like he might find a wide grin already on his face with no idea of when it appeared.

Another part of him wants desperately to take back the baby. He may have said he wanted Elijah to hold his daughter, but Klaus is also a creature of selfish desires, and he wants to have every moment with his child until he will have to send her away.

"Would you like to hold her again?" Elijah asks, just as Klaus is about to.

"Please," he says, and Elijah gets up carefully, trying not to startle the baby.

His daughter is warm and small against his chest, wriggling around a little as Elijah carefully places her in his arms. Will it ever stop amazing him, the way she is so wonderfully alive? He doubts it, but then he may never get the chance to find out anyway.

He feels Elijah coming to stand at his shoulder, the both of them looking down at his daughter as she looks up curiously.

"She'll need a name," Elijah says.

"I suppose she does."

"Have you thought about it?"

Not enough, if he's being honest. It had been easier at first, to simply think of her as _the child_ and only in relation to his brother's wishes for her to be born. Afterwards _my daughter_ had sufficed, and the birth always still seemed so far off.

He always thought they'd have more time to decide.

But no, that's not quite true. There is a name, isn't there? Elijah's words that morning had made him think, and—

It doesn't matter. There is Hayley to consider as well. It isn't even really up to him anyway.

"Hayley had a few names she was considering," Klaus says, evading the question.

"And if the choice were yours?" Elijah asks.

Klaus looks at his daughter for a long moment. It's not a hard choice, there is only really one name which fits, yet somehow it's hard to say it out loud, as if saying it would mean acknowledging all that this child means to him already.

"Hope," he whispers, and Elijah goes still behind him. "I would name her Hope. It seems—fitting."

"Yes," his brother says after a moment, resting a hand on Klaus' shoulder. His voice sounds strangely gruff. "It's a very good name."

He looks back at Elijah, meeting his brother's eyes. Something passes between them then, an understanding which could not be put into words. Elijah doesn't need to ask why he would pick this name for his child. They both remember full well the words spoken in the cemetery earlier this morning.

"You should speak with Hayley about it," Elijah says, gently squeezing his shoulder.

"I will."

On the other side of the compound, a sudden absence of sound indicates that Hayley is done with her shower. She'll be back soon, and will no doubt want to hold her child again for those few hours they have left.

The thought of being parted from his daughter already hurts.

"Rebekah will protect her," Elijah says quietly.

"I know."

"It won't be forever."

Klaus looks at his daughter's face, tries to imagine what she might look like in a year, five years, a decade. "It will still be too long."

Elijah doesn't have anything to offer to that.

* * *

 **A/N:** So I wrote this before that flashback scene of Klaus and Hayley naming Hope aired in s5, so you can either consider it non-canon compliant or say Klaus and Hayley came up with the same name independently or something. Either way, hope you liked it!

Part two (Klaus' first day) will be up tomorrow.


	2. Niklaus

**Enchanted to meet you**

 **Synopsis:** Hope and Klaus. Two still unnamed children on their first day, a thousand years apart.

 **Part two:** Elijah meets his brother for the first time.

* * *

 **10th Century**

* * *

The child has fair hair and blue eyes and Esther once again breathes a sigh of relief for her stroke of good fortune. He looks like Mikael.

Perhaps she ought to feel guilty for this, for deceiving her husband in such a way, for cuckolding him, but she cannot bring herself to regret the child. Already Mikael's reaction to her pregnancy has given her hope. Her husband showed genuine joy when she'd told him, had even felt her stomach to feel the child in a way he hadn't since her first pregnancy.

Does it really matter that the father is somebody else? After all, this boy will never know his true father. He will be Mikael's son in everything but blood. There is no reason to ruin their newfound happiness with the truth.

There's a sound coming from outside, and she suspects she already knows who it is.

"Elijah," she calls. "Is that you?"

The cloth covering the entrance rustles as it is brushed aside, and her second son stands lingering at the doorway, as if waiting for permission to enter properly.

"Ayana said the birth was over now," Elijah says in that solemn way he has sometimes. It should be a comical look on one so young, but Elijah has always been a quiet child.

"Ayana was right," she tells him. "You have a new brother."

"A brother?" He looks a little confused, but then she supposes that is her own fault.

She would have explained more to Elijah before, perhaps even let him feel the child move in her belly, but she'd been so careful. If anything went wrong during the birth, if she'd had another child with dark hair...

She makes no illusions about her husband's willingness to accept another man's child. Mikael can never suspect this boy is not his, and she hadn't wanted Elijah too attached to his brother yet, just in case.

"Yes," she tells him, instead of dwelling on the past. "Here, come meet your little brother."

Elijah obediently wanders closer, crouching a few feet away from her, careful not to get in the way. He looks over at the baby with a curious eye.

"He's very small," Elijah says dubiously.

"Most babies are when they are first born," she explains. "You weren't all that much bigger when you came into the world."

"Oh," he says softly.

"He'll be small for a while yet, so you'll have to help him, Elijah, be a good older brother. Can you do that?"

He nods.

She smiles, then shifts the baby in her arms so she can sit more comfortably.

"What's his name?" Elijah asks, looking up at her with his dark eyes.

"He doesn't have one yet," she explains. "We'll wait until your father returns so he can name him."

It's important that Mikael believes this child to be his own, she had decided that as soon as she realised she was with child again. Letting him name the boy will hopefully provide a connection.

Elijah goes back to watching the baby again, leaning forward as if to get a better look.

"Would you like to hold him?" she asks, and watches his eyes grow wide.

"May I?" he asks.

"Of course," she says, and lightly pats the ground next to her. "Settle down here, and then I'll show you how to hold your little brother."

He quickly does as he's told, looking at the bundle in her arms with eager curiosity.

"Hold out your arms," she tells him, lowering the child into his hands.

Elijah takes him carefully, his movements a little unsure.

"Careful now," she cautions. "Make sure that you support the head."

With some help the baby soon rests in his brother's lap, his head in the crook of Elijah's elbow.

"He's heavy," Elijah comments, clearly not having expected it. "Is that why you were so tired all the time? Because you were carrying him in your belly?"

She tries not to laugh at his earnest tone, letting out a small chuckle. "In part, yes."

Elijah nods as if this makes complete sense to him, still watching the baby lying in his lap.

It suddenly strikes her how she's never seen her children like this before. Freya had been young when Finn was born, and never got to meet Elijah. After Elijah was born there had only been Finn, and Finn had never shown much interest in Elijah, not like his older sister.

She wonders if Freya would have looked at Elijah like this, if Dahlia hadn't taken her.

"Your sister Freya used to sing to you while you were in my womb," she tells him suddenly, and Elijah glances up in surprise. No wonder, as Esther rarely mentions her first child. Still, perhaps Elijah has a right to know.

"To me?" he asks.

"You would kick so hard whenever she did, like you wanted to come out," teases Esther, recalling what she'd told her daughter years ago. "It was as if Thor himself had raised his hammer and summoned thunder and lightning."

Elijah appears to be drinking in every word she says, his eyes wide.

"She was so very enchanted with the idea of meeting her youngest brother," she says, then smiles and nods at the baby. "A bit like you, perhaps?"

He looks back down with a small smile, and nods. He shifts so he can use one hand to pull the soft swaddling cloth to cover his brother better, then goes still as the baby stirs.

Elijah makes a soft noise of surprise when his baby brother clutches his tiny fingers around his, and opens his blue eyes.

"Oh," he says, a tone of wonder in his voice. "Hello."

The baby gapes at him, opening his mouth. She can't help but smile at seeing her sons so entranced by the sight of each other.

Elijah smiles.

"I'm your brother," he tells the baby. "It's very nice to meet you."

* * *

 **A/N:** I hope you enjoyed. As always, any comments or reviews would be very much appreciated!


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